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In the article author Gideon Rachman writes that Nelson Mandela’s dignity “gave him the international status of a Gandhi”.

In the immediate post-apartheid years, writes Rachman, “South Africa seemed poised to buck the dismal trend of much of post-colonial Africa.”

However, under Jacob Zuma many people – even anti-apartheid veterans – were muttering that South African was heading the way of Zimbabwe.

South Africa matters to the world.

It is the only African G20 country, and the most developed country on the Continent, by far.

South Africa has world-class companies, a sophisticated financial sector and outstanding transport infrastructure, says Rachman who adds, “If, despite all this, South Africa slides inexorably backwards, cynicism about the future of the African continent will grow in the rest of the world.”